Grey’s Anatomy – 13×08 The Room Where It Happens – Review by S.

C ’ is a reason why there are episodes-filler: need to lower the level of adrenaline in the Viewer, to make them relax so they can rest and collect physical and mental energies to better address what comes next.

And that's exactly what happened with the last episode of Grey&#8217;s, We didn't complain as it had seemed pretty useless, but actually Shonda knew what he was doing, It was only the calm before the storm. And in fact, lowered his guard and relaxed as rarely happens, We where watching 13×08 with serenity, like rookies unwary, and in fact that's what immediately comes a Backstab, made of memories, tears and a little’ di rabbia.

The ’ episode, led by ’ now unquestioned directed by Debbie Allen, occurs immediately as particular, as unique; everything takes place during a single operation, without that cameras never come from the operating room, without any change of scene, without any change of characters, nothing. Another feature that makes the difference is the the almost total absence of the soundtrack for much of ’ episode: the operations in Grey&#8217;s they are always accompanied by very specific musical moments, Here, however, the only sounds were those cold surgical instruments and voices, increasingly CLT, of the protagonists. This element has helped to create a climate of tension winding, of suspense, letting us down even more than usual in the events narrated. But the peculiarities do not end here: l ’ episode in fact is characterized, even more, for a surreal tinge (not that it's the first time for Grey&#8217;s), with continuous flashbacks that seem to overlap and almost interact with present, to be especially effective and touching.

The characters involved are few: Richard, Owen, Stephanie and Meredith; each alone with himself in that operating room, that looks like so many others and instead, in his little, changes a little’ the life of each one of them. It all starts with one of teachable moments of Richard, as always attentive to the patient as a human being and not just as a body on which to operate; but this time goes beyond, not only imagine a name and a story for that patient, gives the name and the story of his mother, Gail, because Richard knows, how painful, l ’ physician empathy toward the patient makes a better doctor. And so, slowly, in an atmosphere almost dreamlike, We know Gail, her life and her passions, discovering only in the end who is in reality and what really meant those memories for Weber.

The game by Richard helps soothe the climate in an operating room very very tense, where conflicts among surgeons make every second crisper; but slowly, abandoned initial skepticism, everyone follow him in this fiction, and by doing so they can find the way to save the patient and to work better together. It does almost immediately Owen, whose thought goes immediately to her sister Megan, lost years ago in ’ army; Finally we discover the face of this mysterious woman, loved by Owen and Riggs and disappearance (It is assumed) prematurely; Owen knows well the guilt, and that which oppresses the fate of his sister is one of the hardest I have ever dealt with. But Megan reassures him, calm her anxieties and helps him to regain control of the situation, and he does not speak from the past and their past, but drowns in the reality of the moment, talking to Owen about his present, and that is to make all the difference. A note of ’ author: now that we have seen we can finally hope that somehow ’ Megan was saved? I want to see you again!!

Anche Stephanie gets involved, and she also has a difficult past who returns to visit her; his illness has talked, just a little’ When it turned out, but usually she does everything he can to separate himself from that image and ’ from that memory. But at times like this is that sad experience in some useful; il “someone good” appearing in his mind and the little Stephanie who, bedridden from a very rare disease, plunges in the medical books as fairy tales, to defeat the monster with the knowledge. It was a nice way to get to know her better; Apart from the revelation about his past and history with patient musician, ended badly because of that past, Stephanie sides always put on display are quite different, and this was a nice diversion.

The most painful part is, but, what it's up to Meredith; exhausted and immediately the most sceptical of Richard and his educational experiment, climb aboard to last but with the emotional baggage heavier than all (at least for us). Having to think about “someone good” help her “to just keep going” at a difficult time who will ever be? Lo and behold, suddenly, We find ourselves catapulted into the ’ Hospital where we lost Derek, where Meredith entered carrying her children by the hand and came out with the heart destroyed. As if that's not enough, We also see a new scene, one where Meredith has had to tell their children that “Daddy died“. It is a moment of which I would have happily done without, because it is easy to be convinced by passing the mourning when memories are buried in a corner of the mind without having to deal with; instead, review those moments, and keep your eyes of Meredith and Zola in those moments, It was like a punch in the stomach, other than mourning passed. But, as in life, own Zola and little Bailey, at the end, give Mer the strength to regain control of the situation and not to surrender; so, with the help of all the ’ in the room and their memories, together they manage to save what seemed a desperate patient.

L ’ episode was wonderful, and you could already guess when Ellen Pompeo posted on instagram the mail where Shonda does congratulate you, the rest of the cast and Debbie for the great performance. It was one of the times when we remember why Grey&#8217;s It became what it is: because you can tell stories that, even after many years, resound in us as if we lived on our skin.